


i've outgrown my shoes

by besully (Briar_Elwood)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 15.20? I don't know her, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, F/M, God!Jack, M/M, anti john winchester, post 15.19
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:22:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28761756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briar_Elwood/pseuds/besully
Summary: One day, after happily ever after, Dean prays to Jack and apologizes for saying Jack's not family.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Comments: 3
Kudos: 48





	i've outgrown my shoes

**Author's Note:**

> You know those fics where you're just hit by inspiration, you open a document, you start writing, and you write the whole thing in one sitting with no prep?
> 
> What.

One day, after they get Cas back and he and Dean get their shit figured out and Cas moves into Dean’s room and they’re… well, living “happily ever after” might be a bit much, but it’s a helluva a lot closer than Dean ever thought he’d get so he’ll take it, all right? One day, when Cas, Sam, and Eileen are out on a hunt (Dean doesn’t hunt much anymore--his left leg is all fucked up and Cas can’t heal him anymore so Dean cooks and cleans the bunker and sometimes he even does research), one day he prays to Jack.

They don’t see Jack much. He’s busy. Doing God-stuff. It’s good. It’s okay. Sometimes Dean catches Cas looking at a picture of Jack and it makes Dean feel funny inside. Guilty, maybe? Yeah, it was Jack’s choice, but Dean… Dean was responsible for the kid. Yeah, they had no other option, but Jack was Cas’s kid and Cas hadn’t been there to protect him, and they could’ve found some other way, as Sam had pointed out, there’s always another way. Dean was responsible.

And after what the kid had heard Dean say to Sam…

So one day, when no one else is at the bunker, Dean prays to Jack and asks him to visit. Just for a moment. He has something he needs to say.

“Hey Dean.”

Dean whips around from where he’s been knee-deep in cleaning the kitchen to see Jack standing in the doorway, right hand raised in greeting. Dean smiles wryly at the familiar sight and wipes his hands off on a rag before pulling the kid in for a hug. Jack seems a little surprised, but he goes with it. That breaks Dean’s heart just a fraction.

“How ya doin’, kiddo? How’s running things?”

“It’s good. I’m making some changes in heaven,” Jack says brightly. “I don’t like the way it was set up there. Now people can be with their loved ones and don’t live the same memory over and over for eternity.”

Dean stares at the kid. “Wow. You come up with that idea yourself?”

“My mom helped, actually.”

“I’m impressed, kid,” Dean says earnestly. “Heaven’s been a mess for as long as I’ve known it. Be nice to know people are actually gettin’ a fair shake for once.”

“You said you wanted to say something?” Jack asks. Dean pulls in a long breath and nods, pulling a couple beers out of the fridge and leading them to the study. He hands one of the beers to Jack and opens his own, taking a draw from it and looking anywhere but at Jack. The kid sits down and sets his beer on the table, watching Dean with ever-patient eyes.

“You remember when you heard me ‘n’ Sam arguin’ and I said… I said you weren’t family?”

The smile that always seems to linger on Jack’s face fades like he’s suddenly realized this is a serious conversation, and he nods.

“That… that was wrong of me.” Dean still can’t look at the boy. He can’t see those cow eyes staring at him. “I didn’t… Well, I did mean it at the time, but I don’t… You’re our son, Jack, mine and Cas’s, and we love you, I--... I love you. And I’m--” He takes a breath and looks up. “I’m sorry.”

Jack’s cheeks are wet, that’s the first thing Dean notices when he finally allows himself to really look at Jack, and his first thought is  _ panic _ .

“Shit, Jack, I didn’t mean--” Dean runs to Jack, to wipe his tears, to bandage the wound, to do  _ something _ , but Jack laughs and brushes him away.

“They’re happy tears, stupid,” he says, standing up and stepping out of Dean’s trajectory. With nowhere else to go, Dean sits heavily in the chair Jack had just been occupying and stares. Jack hiccups and wipes at his face with the back of one hand, putting his other hand on Dean’s.

“You’re not your dad, Dean.”

Dean frowns at him suspiciously, but his insides squirm. Talk about hitting the nail right on the head. Jack just smiles.

“Cas told me.”

Of course he did.

Still. Dean may be making progress, but he’s not that far. He slides his hand out from under Jack’s and stands back up, throwing on a smile.

“So whaddya say? Game night when everyone gets back from their hunt? Cas really misses you, man.”

Jack smiles. “Okay. I’ll be there.”

Dean doesn’t tell Cas he talked to Jack when he calls that night to say good night. It’s more of an in-person conversation, he thinks. He doesn’t end up telling Cas the details until after game night when they’re getting ready for bed. But the look on Cas’s face when Jack was waiting with a literal pile of games waiting on the table when they walked through the bunker door is something Dean’ll treasure for a long time. Just like he’ll treasure the look in Cas’s eyes when Jack asks that night if he should start calling them “Dad”.

(Cas says--through tears--that he’d like that. Dean says “Dean” is just fine.

...Sam and Eileen look positively delighted to become an aunt and uncle.)


End file.
